Staingate is Here to Give Apple a Headache: Stains and Abrasions Spotted on the MacBook Pro Retina Display

It appears that every time there’s a minor (sometimes major) problem with an Apple product, people rush and create a “gate” phenomenon. We’ve had Antennagate and Bendgate, plus that problem with the purple hue of the camera or the yellow hue of the screen. Now there’s a so called Staingate affecting the Macbook Pro Retina Display models.

Staingate is by no means as widespread as Bendgate, with only a few cases spotted so far. It involves the appearance of signs of wear, stains and abrasions on the MacBook Pro Retina screen. The signs of wear appear on the protective layer of the display, in the areas most prone to stress. For example, the edge of the FaceTime camera or the side edges are the ones most affected.

Of course, the portions of the screen that come in contact with the ever dirty keys are affected. Apple Insider reports that excessive cleaning of the screen and humidity will actually enhance the problem instead of eliminate it. A batch of MacBook Pros from 2013 seem to be affected by the issue and it’s important to note that they are out of the warranty cover.

There’s even a web page called Staingate.org, so there’s a bit of a community here. Apple has clarified everything by saying that cosmetic damages require around $800 to fix on the MacBooks. Meanwhile, the users aren’t slowing down, having created a petition on Change.org. The petition was started 5 months ago and it collected 2000 signatures so far.

Have you seen such damaged MacBooks or heard anyone complain about it?